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THE M J 3^ 
WITHOUT 
CO U N T R r 


% 

EDWARD CFERETT H^ALE 
With 

Il^tes and Questions 

my 

gEORGE ^LEX^NDER ROSS 


Ifnrfe 

THE PLATT & NOURSE CO. 

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COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY 
THE PLATT & PECK COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY 
THE PLATT & NOURSE COMPANY 


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NOV 15 1917 


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INTRODUCTION. 


‘*The Man Without a Country’^ first ap- 
peared in the Atlantic Monthly for Decem- 
ber, 1863. It was the author’s wish that it 
be published anonymously, in the hope that 
it might be ascribed to some officer of the 
Navy ; but unfortunately, the man who com- 
piled the year’s index for the magazine, 
which was mailed with the December num- 
ber, recognized Dr. Hale’s handwriting, and 
gave him credit for it in the index. 

The story was written during the darkest 
period of the Civil War, and this war is 
perhaps the gloomiest period in the history 
of our great Republic; it was written at a 
time when one-half of the people in the 
United States were burning with patriotism, 
and were ready to lay down their lives to 
preserve the Union, while the other half were 


llSTRODUCTION 


striving to disrupt what to them was merely 
a confederaton of States, in no wise binding, 
and were damning the United States, even as 
did Philip Nolan; at a time when the Presi- 
dent was bending low under the weight of 
sorrow for the loss of the thousands of noble 
men who were falling in battle, and was en- 
during in pitiful silence the villification that 
was heaped upon him by the “copper-head” 
opposition; at a time when patriotism was 
preached in the pulpit, sung by our poets, and 
exhaled with every breath. 

The story launched in such an atmosphere, 
met with immediate favor. It was reprinted 
everywhere without regard for copyright, 
and was translated into several foreign lan- 
guages. It was accepted by many as a narra- 
tive of actual facts, and provoked many dis- 
cussions as to whether Philip Nolan was a 
real person; some even went so far as to 
identify him. 

While to-day we know that the story is alle- 
gorical, and was intended by the author mere- 


Introduction 


ly to stimulate the love of country which the 
disastrous war was putting to a very severe 
test, and that no such punishment as Nolan 
suffered would be imposed by the United 
States, yet its lesson of the value of patriotism 
will be kept alive in our hearts so long as the 
‘‘Stars and Stripes’’ are the symbols of 
freedom. 




SUPPOSE that very few 
casual readers of the New 
T ork Herald of August 
13th observed, in an ob- 
scure corner, among the ''Deaths,'’ 
the announcement, — 



''Nolan. Died, on board U. S. Cor- 
vette Levant, Lat. 2“ ii' S., Long. 13 1® 
W., on the i ith of May, Philip Nolan.” 


I happened to observe it, because 1 
was stranded at the old Mission- 
House in Mackinaw, waiting for a 
Lake Superior steamer which did 
not choose to come, and I was de- 
vouring to the very stubble all the 
current literature I could get hold 

13 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


of, even down to the deaths and 
marriages in the Herald. My mem- 
ory for names and people is good, 
and the reader will see, as he goes 
on, that I had reason enough to re- 
member Philip Nolan. There are 
hundreds of readers who would 
have paused at that announce- 
ment, if the officer of the Levant 
who reported it had chosen to make 
it thus: — ‘‘Died, May nth. The 
Man WITHOUT a Country.” For 
it was as “The Man without a 
Country” that poor Philip Nolan 
had generally been known by the 
officers who had him in charge dur- 
ing some fifty years, as, indeed, by 
all men who sailed under them. I 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


dare say there is many a man who 
has taken wine with him once a 
fortnight, in a three years’ cruise, 
who never knew that his name was 
‘‘Nolan,” or whether the poor 
wretch had any name at all. 

There can now be no possible 
harm in telling this poor creature’s 
story. Reason enough there has 
been till now, ever since Madison’s 
administration went out in 1817, 
for very strict secrecy, the secrecy 
of honor itself, among the gentle- 
men of the navy who have had 
Nolan in successive charge. And 
certainly it speaks well for the 
esprit de corps of the profession, 
and the personal honor of its mem- 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


bers, that to the press this man’s 
story has been wholly unknown, — 
and, I think, to the country at large 
also. I have reason to think, from 
some investigations I made in the 
Naval Archives when I was at- 
tached to the Bureau of Construc- 
tion, that every oflBcial report relat- 
ing to him was burned when Ptoss 
burned the public buildings at 
Washington. One of the Tuckers, 
or possibly one of the Watsons, 
had Nolan in charge at the end of 
the war; and when, on returning 
from his cruise, he reported at 
Washington to one of the Crown- 
inshields — who was in the Navy 
Department when he came home, — 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


he found that the Department ig- 
nored the whole business. Whether 
they really knew nothing about it 
or whether it was a ''Non mi re- 
cordo^' determined on as a piece of 
policy, I do not know. But this I 
do know, that since 1817, and pos- 
sibly before, no naval officer has 
mentioned Nolan in his report of a 
cruise. 

But, as I say, there is no need for 
secrecy any longer. And now the 
poor creature is dead, it seems to 
me worth while to tell a little of his 
story, by way of showing young 
Americans of to-day what it is to be 
A Man without a Country. 

Philip Nolan was as fine a young 

17 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


officer as there was in the '‘Legion 
of the West/’ as the Western divi- 
sion of our army was then called. 
When Aaron Burr made his first 
dashing expedition down to New 
Orleans in 1805, at Fort Massac, or 
somewhere above on the river, he 
met, as the Devil would have it, 
this gay, dashing, bright young fel- 
low, at some dinner-party, I think. 
Burr marked him, talked to him, 
walked with him, took him a day or 
two’s voyage in his flatboat, and, 
in short, fascinated him. For the 
next year, barrack-life was very 
tame to poor Nolan. He occasion- 
ally availed himself of the permis- 
sion the great man had given him to 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


write to him. Long, high-worded, 
stilted letters the poor boy wrote 
and rewrote and copied. But never 
a line did he have in reply from the 
gay deceiver. The other boys in the 
garrison sneered at him, because he 
sacrificed in this unrequited affec- 
tion for a politician the time which 
they devoted to Monongahela, haz- 
ard and high-low- jack. Bourbon, 
euchre and poker were still un- 
known. But one day Nolan had 
his revenge. This time Burr came 
down the river, not as an attorney 
seeking a place for his offiice, but 
as a disguised conquerer. He had 
defeated I know not how many dis- 
trict-attorneys; he had dined at I 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


know not how many public din- 
ners; he had been heralded in I 
know not how many Weekly Ar- 
guses^ and it was rumored that he 
had an army behind him and an 
empire before him. It was a great 
day — his arrival — to poor Nolan. 
Burr had not been at the fort an 
hour before he sent for him. That 
evening he asked Nolan to take him 
out in his skiff, to show him a cane- 
brake or a cottonwood tree, as he 
said, — really to seduce him; and by 
the time the sail was over, Nolan 
was enlisted body and soul. From 
that time, though he did not yet 
know it, he lived as A Man with- 
out A Country. 


20 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


What Burr meant to do I know 
no more than you, dear reader. It 
is none of our business just now. 
Only, when the grand catastrophe 
came, and Jefferson and the House 
of Virginia of that day undertook 
to break on the wheel all the possi- 
ble Clarences of the then House of 
York, by the great treason- trial at 
Richmond, some of the lesser fry 
in that distant Mississippi Valley, 
which was farther from us than 
Puget’s Sound is to-day, intro- 
duced the like novelty on their pro- 
vincial stage; and, to while away 
the monotony of the summer at 
Fort Adams, got up, for spectacles, 
a string of court-martials on the of- 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


ficers there. One and another of 
the colonels and majors were tried, 
and, to fill out the list, little Nolan, 
against whom. Heaven knows, 
there was evidence enough, — that 
he was sick of the service, had been 
willing to be false to it, and would 
have obeyed any order to march 
any-whither with any one who 
would follow him, had the order 
been signed, ‘'By command of His 
Exc. A. Burr.’’ The courts dragged 
on. The big flies escaped, — right- 
ly for all I know. Nolan was 
proved guilty enough, as I say; yet 
you and I would never have heard 
of him, reader, but that, when the 

president of the court asked him at 
22 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


the close whether he wished to say 
anything to show that he had al- 
ways been faithful to the United 
States, he cried out, in a fit of 
frenzy, — 

“D — n the United States! I 
wish I may never hear of the 
United States again !” 

I suppose he did not know how 
the words shocked old Colonel 
Morgan, who was holding the 
court. Half the officers who sat in 
it had served through the Revolu- 
tion, and their lives, not to say their 
necks, had been risked for the very 
idea which he so cavalierly cursed 
in his madness. He, on his part, 
had grown up in the West of those 

S3 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


days, in the midst of “Spanish 
plot,” “Orleans plot,” and all the 
rest. He had been educated on a 
plantation where the finest com- 
pany was a Spanish officer or a 
French merchant from Orleans. 
His education, such as it was, had 
been perfected in commercial expe- 
ditions to Vera Cruz, and I think 
he told me his father once hired an 
Englishman to be a private tutor 
for a winter on the plantation. He 
had spent half his youth with an 
older brother, hunting horses in 
Texas; and, in a word, to him 
“United States” was scarcely a 
reality. Yet he had been fed by 
“United States” for all the years 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


since he had been in the army. He 
had sworn on his faith as a Chris- 
tian to be true to “United States.” 
It was “United States” which gave 
him the uniform he wore, and the 
sword by his side. Nay, my poor 
Nolan, it was only because “United 
States” had picked you out first as 
one of her own confidential men of 
honor that “A. Burr” cared for you 
a straw more than for the flatboat 
men who sailed his ark for him. I 
do not excuse Nolan; I only ex- 
plain to the reader why he damned 
his country, and wished he might 
never hear her name again. 

He never did hear her name but 
once again. From that moment, 

2S 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


September 23, 1807, till the day he 
died, May 1 1, 1863, he never heard 
her name again. For that half-cen- 
tury and more he was a man with- 
out a country. 

Old Morgan, as I said, was terri- 
bly shocked. If Nolan had com- 
pared George Washington to Bene- 
dict Arnold, or had cried, “God 
save King George,’’ Morgan would 
not have felt worse. He called the 
court into his private room, and re- 
turned in fifteen minutes, with a 
face like a sheet, to say : 

“Prisoner, hear the sentence of 
the Court ! The Court decides, sub- 
ject to the approval of the Presi- 
dent, that you never hear the name 

of the United States again.” 

26 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


Nolan laughed. But nobody else 
laughed. Old Morgan was too sol- 
emn, and the whole room was 
hushed dead as night for a minute. 
Even Nolan lost his swagger in a 
moment. Then Morgan added: 

“Mr. Marshal, take the prisoner 
to Orleans in an armed boat, and 
deliver him to the naval command- 
er there.” 

The marshal gave his orders, and 
the prisoner was taken out of court. 

“Mr. Marshal,” continued old 
Morgan, “see that no one mentions 
the United States to the prisoner. 
Mr. Marshal, make my respects to 
Lieutenant Mitchell at Orleans, 
and request him to order that no 

27 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTR'S 


one shall mention the United 
States to the prisoner while he is on 
board ship. You will receive your 
written orders from the officer on 
duty here this evening. The court 
is adjourned without day.” 

I have always supposed that 
Colonel Morgan himself took the 
proceedings of the court to Wash- 
ington City, and explained them to 
Mr. Jefferson. Certain it is that the 
President approved them, — cer- 
tain, that is, if I may believe the 
men who say they have seen his 
signature. Before the Nautilus got 
round from New Orleans to the 
Northern Atlantic coast with the 

prisoner on board, the sentence had 
28 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


been approved, and he was a man 
without a country. 

The plan then adopted was sub- 
stantially the same which was nec- 
essarily followed ever after. Per- 
haps it was suggested by the neces- 
sity of sending him by water from 
Fort Adams and Orleans. The 
Secretary of the Navy — it must 
have been the first Crowninshield, 
though he is a man I do not remem- 
ber — was requested to put Nolan 
on board a government vessel 
bound on a long cruise, and to di- 
rect that he should be only so far 
confined there as to make it certain 
that he never saw or heard of the 
country. We had few long cruises 

29 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


then, and the navy was very much 
out of favor; and as almost all of 
this story is traditional, as I have 
explained, I do not know certainly 
what his first cruise was. But the 
commander to whom he was in- 
trusted, — perhaps it was Tingey or 
Shaw, though I think it was one of 
the younger men, — we are all old 
enough now, — regulated the eti- 
quette and the precautions of the 
affair, and according to his scheme 
they were carried out, I suppose, 
till Nolan died. 

When I was second officer of the 
Intrepid, some thirty years after, I 
saw the original paper of instruc- 
tions. I have been sorry ever since 

30 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


that I did not copy the whole of it. 
It ran, however, much in this 
way: — 

"Washington (with a date, which 
must have been late in 1807). 

— ^You will receive from 
Lieutenant Neale the person of 
Philip Nolan, late a lieutenant in 
the United States Army. 

“This person on his trial by court 
martial expressed with an oath the 
wish that he might ‘never hear of 
the United States again.’ 

“The Court sentenced him to 
have his wish fulfilled. 

“For the present, the execution 
of the order is intrusted by the 
President to this Department. 

“You will take the prisoner on 
board your ship and keep him there 
with such precautions as shall pre- 
vent his escape. 


31 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


‘‘You will provide him with such 
quarters, rations and clothing as 
would be proper for an officer of his 
late rank, if he were a passenger on 
your vessel on the business of his 
Government. 

“The gentlemen on board will 
make any arrangements agreeable 
to themselves regarding his society. 
He is to be exposed to no indignity 
of any kind, nor is he ever unneces- 
sarily to be reminded that he is a 
prisoner. 

“But under no circumstances is 
he ever to hear of his country or to 
see any information regarding it; 
and you will specially caution all 
the officers under your command to 
take care that, in the various indul- 
gences which may be granted, this 
rule, in which his punishment is in- 
volved, shall not be broken. 

32 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


“It is the intention of the Gov- 
ernment that he shall never again 
see the country which he has dis- 
owned. Before the end of your 
cruise you will receive orders which 
will give effect to this intention, 
“Respectfully yours, 

“W. Southard, 

“For the Secretary of the Navy.’^ 

If I had only preserved the whole 
of this paper, there would be no 
break in the beginning of my sketch 
of this story. For Captain Shaw, if 
it were he, handed it to his suc- 
cessor in the charge, and he to his, 
and I suppose the commander of 
the Levant has it to-day as his au- 
thority for keeping this man in this 
mild custody. 


33 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


The rule adopted on board the 
ships on which I have met ‘‘the man 
without a country’’ was, I think, 
transmitted from the beginning.^ 
No mess liked to have him perrna-^ 
nently, because his presence cut off 
all talk of home or of the prospect 
of return, of politics or letters, of 
peace or of war, — cut off more than 
half the talk men liked to have at 
sea. But it was always thought too 
hard that he should never meet the 
rest of us, except to touch hats, and 
we finally sank into one system. He 
was not permitted to talk with the 
men, unless an officer was by. With 
officers he had unrestrained inter- 
course, as far as they and he chose. 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


But he grew shy, though he had 
favorites: I was one. Then the 
captain always asked him to dinner 
on Monday. Every mess in succes- 
sion took up the invitation in its 
turn. According to the size of the 
ship, you had him at your mess 
more or less often at dinner. His 
breakfast he ate in his own state- 
room, — he always had a state- 
room, — which was where a sentinel 
or somebody on the watch could see 
the door. And whatever else he ate 
or drank, he ate or drank alone. 
Sometimes, when the marines or 
sailors had any special jollification, 
they were permitted to invite 
“Plain-Buttons,” as they called 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


him. Then Nolan was sent with 
some officer, and the men were for- 
bidden to speak of home while he 
was there. I believe the theory was 
that the sight of his punishment 
did them good. They called him 
"Tlain-Buttons,” because, while he 
always chose to wear a regulation 
army-uniform, he was not per- 
mitted to wear the army-button, for 
the reason that it bore either the 
initials or the insignia of the coun- 
try he had disowned. 

I remember, soon after I joined 
the navy, I was on shore with some 
of the older officers from our ship 
and from the Brandywine, which 
we had met at Alexandria. We had 

36 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


leave to make a party and go up to 
Cairo and the Pyramids. As we 
jogged along (you went on don- 
keys then), some of the gentlemen 
(we boys called them '‘Dons,” but 
the phrase was long since changed) 
fell to talking about Nolan, and 
some one told the system which was 
adopted from the first about his 
books and other reading. As he was 
almost never permitted to go on 
shore, even though the vessel lay 
in port for months, his time at the 
best hung heavy; and everybody 
was permitted to lend him books, if 
they were not published in America 
and made no allusion to it. These 
were common enough in the old 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


days, when people in the other 
hemisphere talked of the United 
States as little as we do of Para- 
guay. He had almost all the for- 
eign papers that came into the ship, 
sooner or later; only somebody 
must go over them first, and cut out 
any advertisement or stray para- 
graph that alluded to America. 
This was a little cruel sometimes, 
when the back of what was cut out 
might be as innocent as Hesiod. 
Right in the midst of one of Napo- 
leon’s battles, or one of Canning’s 
speeches, poor Nolan would find a 
great hole, because on the back of 
the page of that paper there had 
been an advertisement of a packet 

38 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


for New York, or a scrap from the 
President’s message. I say this was 
the first time I ever heard of this 
plan, which afterwards I had 
enough and more than enough to do 
with. I remember it, because poor 
Phillips, who was of the party, as 
soon as the allusion to reading was 
made, told a story of something 
which happened at the Cape of 
Good Hope on Nolan’s first voy- 
age ; and it is the only thing I ever 
knew of that voyage. They had 
touched at the Cape, and had done 
the civil thing with the English Ad- 
miral and the fleet, and then, leav- 
ing for a long cruise up the Indian 
Ocean, Phillips had borrowed a lot 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


of English books from an officer, 
which, in those days, as indeed in 
these, was quite a windfall. Among 
them, as the Devil would order, 
was the ‘‘Lay of the Last Min- 
strel,” which they had all of them 
heard of, but which most of them 
had never seen. I think it could^ 
not have been published long. 
Well, nobody thought there could 
be any risk of anything national in 
that, though Phillips swore old 
Shaw had cut out the “Tempest” 
from Shakespeare before he let No- 
lan have it, because, he said, “the 
Bermudas ought to be ours, and, by 
Jove, should be one day.” So 
Nolan was permitted to join the 

40 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


circle one afternoon when a lot of 
them sat on deck smoking and read- 
ing aloud. People do not do such 
things so often now; but when I 
was young we got rid of a great 
deal of time so. Well, so it hap- 
pened that in his turn Nolan took 
the book and read to the others ; and 
he read very well, as I know. No- 
body in the circle knew a line of 
the poem, only it was all magic and 
Border chivalry, and was ten thou- 
sand years ago. Poor Nolan read 
steadily through the fifth canto, 
stopped a minute and drank some- 
thing, and then began, without a 
thought of what was coming : 

41 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


‘‘Breathes there the man, with soul 
so dead, 

Who never to himself hath said — ” 

It seems impossible to us that 
anybody ever heard this for the 
first time; but all these fellows did 
then, and poor Nolan himself went 
on, still unconsciously or mechani- 
cally, — 

“This is my own, my native land!” 

Then they all saw something was 
to pay; but he expected to get 
through, I suppose, turned a little 
pale, but plunged on, — 

“Whose heart hath ne’er within 
him burned, 

42 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


As home his footsteps he hath 
turned 

From wandering on a foreign 
strand? — 

If such there breathe, go, mark him 
well,"’ — 

By this time the men were all be- 
side themselves, wishing there was 
anyway to make him turn over two 
pages; but he had not quite pres- 
ence of mind for that; he gagged 
a little, colored crimson, and stag- 
gered on, — 

‘Tor him no minstrel raptures 
swell; 

High though his titles, proud his 
name, 


43 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


Boundless his wealth as wish can 
claim, 

Despite these titles, power, and 
pelf. 

The wretch, concentred all in 
self,”— 

and here the poor fellow choked, 
could not go on, but started up, 
swung the book into the sea, van- 
ished into his stateroom, "‘And, by 
Jove,” said Phillips, “we did not 
see him for two months again. And 
I had to make up some beggarly 
story to that English surgeon why 
I did not return his Walter Scott to 
him.” 

That story shows about the time 
when Nolan’s braggadocio must 

44 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


have broken down. At first, they 
said, he took a very high tone, con- 
sidered his imprisonment a mere 
farce, affected to enjoy the voyage, 
and all that ; but Phillips said that 
after he came out of his stateroom 
he never was the same man again. 
He never read aloud again, unless 
it was the Bible or Shakespeare, or 
something else he was sure of. But 
it was not that merely. He never 
entered in with the other young 
men exactly as a companion again- 
He was always shy afterwards, 
when I knew him, — very seldom 
spoke, unless he was spoken to ex- 
cept to a very few friends. He 
lighted up occasionally, — I re- 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


member late in his life hearing him 
fairly eloquent on something 
which had been suggested to him 
by one of Flechier’s sermons, — but 
generally he had the nervous, tired 
look of a heart-wounded man. 

When Captain Shaw was coming 
home, — if, as I say, it was Shaw,— 
rather to the surprise of everybody, 
they made one of the Windward 
Islands, and lay off and on for 
nearly a week. The boys said the 
officers were sick of salt- junk, and 
meant to have turtle-soup before 
they came home. But after several 
days the Warren came to the same 
rendezvous; they exchanged sig- 
nals; she sent to Phillips and these 

46 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 

homeward-bound men letters and 
papers, and told them she was out- 
ward bound, perhaps to the Medi- 
terranean, and took poor Nolan 
and his traps on the boat back to 
try his second cruise. He looked 
very blank when he was told to get 
ready to join her. He had known 
enough of the signs of the sky to 
know that till that moment he was 
going “home.” But this was a dis- 
tinct evidence of something he had 
not thought of, perhaps, — that 
there was no going home for him, 
even to a prison. And this was the 
first of some twenty such transfers, 
which brought him sooner or later 
into half our best vessels, but 

47 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


which kept him all his life at least 
some hundred miles from the coun- 
try he had hoped he might never 
hear of again. 

It may, have been on that second 
cruise, — it was once when he was 
up the Mediterranean, — that Mrs. 
Graff, the celebrated Southern 
beauty of those days, danced with 
him. They had been lying a long 
time in the Bay of Naples, and the 
officers were very intimate in the 
English fleet, and there had been 
great festivities, and our men 
thought they must give a great ball 
on board the ship. How they ever 
did it on board the Warren I am 
sure I do not know. Perhaps it 

48 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


was not the Warren, or perhaps 
ladies did not take up so much 
room as they do now. They want- 
ed to use Nolan’s state-room for 
something, and they hated to do it 
without asking him to the ball; so 
the captain said theymight ask him, 
if they would be responsible that 
he did not talk with the wrong peo- 
ple, “who would give him intelli- 
gence.” So the dance went on, the 
finest party that had ever been 
known, I dare say; for I never 
heard of a man-of-war ball that 
was not. For ladies they had the 
family of the American consul, one 
or two travellers, who had adven- 
tured so far, and a nice bevy of 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


English girls and matrons, perhaps 
Lady Hamilton herself. 

Well, different officers relieved 
each other in standing and talking 
with Nolan in a friendly way, so as 
to be sure that nobody else spoke to 
him. The dancing went on with 
spirit, and after a while even the 
fellows who took this honorary 
guard of Nolan ceased to fear any 
contretemps. Only when some 
English lady — Lady Hamilton, as 
I said, perhaps — called for a set of 
“American dances,” an odd thing 
happened. Everybody then danced 
contra-dances. The black band, 
nothing loath, conferred as to what 
“American dances” were, and 

50 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


Started off with “Virginia Reel,” 
which they followed with “Money- 
Musk,” which, in its turn in those 
days, should have been followed by 
“The Old Thirteen.” But just as 
Dick, the leader, tapped for his fid- 
dles to begin, and bent forward, 
about to say, in true negro state, 
“ ‘The Old Thirteen,’ gentlemen 
and ladies !” as he had said, “ ‘Vir- 
ginny Reel,’ if you please!” and 
“ ‘Money-Musk,’ if you please !” 
the captain’s boy tapped him on the 
shoulder, whispered to him, and he 
did not announce the name of the 
dance ; he merely bowed, began on 
the air, and they all fell to, — the 
officers teaching the English girls 

51 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


the figure, but not telling them 
why it had no name. 

But that is not the story I started 
to tell. As the dancing went on, 
Nolan and our fellows all got at 
ease, as I said, — so much so, that it 
seemed quite natural for him to 
bow to that splendid Mrs. Graff, 
and say: 

“I hope you have not forgotten 
me. Miss Rutledge. Shall I have 
the honor of dancing?” 

He did it so quickly, that Fel- 
lows, who was by him, could not 
hinder him. She laughed and said : 

“I am not Miss Rutledge any 
longer, Mr. Nolan; but I will 
dance all the same,” just nodded to 

52 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


Fellows, as if to say he must leave 
Mr. Nolan to her, and led him off 
to the place where the dance was 
forming. 

Nolan thought he had got his 
chance. He had known her at 
Philadelphia, and at other places 
had met her, and this was a god- 
send. Y ou could not talk in contra- 
dances, as you do in cotillions, or 
even in the pauses of waltzing ; but 
there were chances for tongues and 
sounds, as well as for eyes and 
blushes. He began with her travels, 
and Europe, and Vesuvius, and the 
French; and then, when they had 
worked down, and had that long 
talking time at the bottom of the 

53 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


set, he said boldly, — a little pale, 
she said, as she told me the story 
years after, — 

‘'And what do you hear from 
home, Mrs. Graff?” 

And that splendid creature 
looked through him. Jove ! how she 
must have looked through him ! 

“Home!! Mr. Nolan!!! I 
thought you were the man who 
never wanted to hear of home 
again!” — and she walked directly 
up the deck to her husband, and 
left poor Nolan alone, as he always 
was. He did not dance again. I 
cannot give any history of him in 
order; nobody can now; and, in- 
deed, I am not trying to. 

54 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


These are the traditions, which 
I sort out, as I believe them, from 
the myths which have been told 
about this man for forty years. The 
lies that have been told about him 
are legion. The fellows used to say 
he was the ‘Iror^ Mask” ; and poor 
George Pons went to his grave in 
the belief that this was the author 
of '‘Juniu:^',” who was being pun- 
ished for his celebrated libel on 
ThoHlas Jefferson. Pons was not 
very strong in the historical line. 

A happier story than either of 
these I have told is of the War. 
That came along soon after. I 
have heard this affair told in three 
or four ways, and, indeed, it may 

55 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


have happened more than once. 
But which ship it was on I cannot 
tell. However, in one, at least, 
of the great frigate-duels with the 
English, in which the navy was 
really baptized, it happened that a 
round-shot from the enemy entered 
one of our ports square, and took 
right down the officer of the gun 
himself, and almost every man of 
the gun’s crew. Now, you may say 
what you choose about courage, but 
that is not a nice thing to see. But, 
as the men who were not killed 
picked themselves up, and as they 
and the surgeon’s people were car- 
rying off the bodies, there appeared 

Nolan, in his shirt-sleeves, with the 
56 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


rammer in his hand, and, just as if 
he had been the officer, told them 
off with authority — who should go 
to the cock-pit with the wounded 
men, who should stay with him, — 
perfectly cheery, and with that way 
which makes men feel sure all is 
right and is going to be right. And 
he finished loading the gun with his 
own hands, aimed it, and bade the 
men fire. And there he stayed, cap- 
tain of that gun, keeping those fel- 
lows in spirits, till the enemy 
struck, sitting on the carriage while 
the gun was cooling, though he was 
exposed all the time, showing them 
easier ways to handle heavy shot, 
making the raw hands laugh at 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


their own blunders, and when the 
gun cooled again, getting it loaded 
and fired twice as often as any 
other gun on the ship. The captain 
walked forward by way of encour- 
aging the men, and Nolan touched 
his hat and said, — 

am showing them how we do 
this in the artillery, sir.” 

And this is the part of the story 
where all the legends agree; and 
the commodore said, — 

'1 see you do, and I thank you, 
sir; and I shall never forget this 
day, sir, and you never shall, sir.” 

And after the whole thing was 
over, and he had the Englishman’s 
sword, in the midst of the state and 

58 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTR7 


ceremony of the quarter-deck, he 
said, — 

“Where is Mr. Nolan? Ask Mr. 
Nolan to come here.” 

And when Nolan came, the cap- 
tain said : 

“Mr. Nolan, we are all very 
grateful to you to-day; you are one 
of us to-day; you will be named in 
the despatches.” 

And then the old man took off 
his own sword of ceremony, and 
gave it to Nolan, and made him 
put it on. The man told me this 
who saw it. Nolan cried like a 
baby, and well he might. He had 
not worn a sword since that infer- 
nal day at Fort Adams. But always 

59 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


afterwards, on occasions of cere- 
mony, he wore that quaint old 
French sword of the commodore’s. 

The captain did mention him in 
the despatches. It was always said 
he asked that he might be par- 
doned. He wrote a special letter 
to the Secretary of War. But noth- 
ing ever came of it. As I said, that 
was about the time when they be- 
gan to ignore the whole transaction 
at Washington, and when Nolan’s 
imprisonment began to carry itself 
on because there was nobody to 
stop it without any new orders 
from home. 

I have heard it said that he was 

with Porter when he took posses- 
60 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


sion of the Nukahiwa Islands. Not 
this Porter, you know, but old Por- 
ter, his father, Essex Porter, — that 
is, the old Essex Porter, not this 
Essex. As an artillery officer, who 
had seen service in the West, 
Nolan knew more about fortifica- 
tions, embrasures, ravelins, stock- 
ades, and all that, than any of them 
did; and he worked with a right 
good-will in fixing that battery all 
right. I have always thought it was 
a pity Porter did not leave him in 
command there with Gamble. That 
would have settled all the question 
about his punishment. We should 
have kept the islands, and at this 
moment we should have one sta- 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


tion in the Pacific Ocean. Our 
French friends, too, when they 
wanted this little watering-place, 
would have found it was preoccu- 
pied. But Madison and the Vir- 
ginians, of course, flung all that 
away. 

All that was near fifty years ago. 
If Nolan was thirty then, he must 
have been near eighty when he 
died. He looked sixty when he 
was forty. But he never seemed to 
me to change a hair afterwards. As 
I imagine his life, from what I 
have seen and heard of it, he must 
have been in every sea, and yet al- 
most never on land. He must have 

known, in a formal way, more offi- 
62 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


cers in our service than any man 
living knows. He told me once, 
with a grave smile, that no man in 
the world lived so methodical a life 
as he. “You know the boys say I 
am the Iron Mask, and you know 
how busy he was.” He said it did 
not do for any one to try to read all 
the time, more than to do anything 
else all the time; but that he read 
just five hours a day. “Then,” he 
said, “I keep up my note-books, 
writing in them at such and such 
hours from what I have been read- 
ing; and I include in these my 
scrap-books.” These were very 
curious indeed. He had six or 
eight, of different subjects. There 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


was one of History, one of Natural 
Science, one which he called “Odds 
and Ends.” But they were not 
merely books of extracts from 
newspapers. They had bits of 
plants and ribbons, shells tied on, 
and carved scraps of bone and 
wood, which he had taught the men 
to cut for him, and they were beau- 
tifully illustrated. He drew ad- 
mirably. He had some of the fun- 
niest drawings there, and some of 
the most pathetic, that I have ever 
seen in my life. I wonder who will 
have Nolan’s scrap-books. 

Well, he said his reading and his 
notes were his profession, and that 
they took five hours and two hours 

64 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


respectively of each day. ‘‘Then/’ 
said he, “every man should have a 
diversion as well as a profession. 
My Natural History is my diver- 
sion.” That took two hours a day 
more. The men used to bring him 
birds and fish, but on a long cruise 
he had to satisfy himself with cen- 
tipedes and cockroaches and such 
small game. He was the only natu- 
ralist I ever met who knew any- 
thing about the habits of the house- 
fly and the mosquito. All those 
people can tell you whether they 
are Lepidoptera or Steptopotera; 
but as for telling how you can get 
rid of them, or how they get away 
from you when you strike them, — ' 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


why, Linnaeus knew as little of 
that as John Fox the idiot did. 
These nine hours made Nolan’s 
regular daily '‘occupation.” The 
rest of the time he talked or 
walked. Till he grew very old, he 
went aloft a great deal. He always 
kept up his exercise; and I never 
heard that he was ill. If any other 
man was ill, he was the kindest 
nurse in the world; and he knew 
more than half the surgeons do. 
Then if anybody was sick or died, 
or if the captain wanted him to, on 
any other occasion, he was always 
ready to read prayers. I have said 
that he read beautifully. 

My own acquaintance with 
66 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


Philip Nolan began six or eight 
years after the War, on my first 
voyage after I was appointed a 
midshipman. It was in the first 
days after our Slave-Trade treaty, 
while the Reigning House, which 
was still the House of Virginia, 
had still a sort of sentimentalism 
about the suppression of the hor- 
rors of the Middle Passage, and 
something was sometimes done 
that way. We were in the South 
Atlantic on that business. From 
the time I joined I believe I 
thought Nolan was a sort of lay 
chaplain — a chaplain with a blue 
coat. I never asked about him. 
Everything in the ship was strange 

67 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


to me. I knew it was green to ask 
questions, and I suppose I thought 
there was a 'Tlain-Buttons” on 
every ship. We had him to dine in 
our mess once a week, and the cau- 
tion was given that on that day 
nothing was to be said about home. 
But if they had told us not to say 
anything about the planet Mars or 
the Book of Deuteronomy, I should 
not have asked why; there were a 
great many things which seemed to 
me to have as little reason. I first 
came to understand anything about 
‘'the man without a country” one 
day when we overhauled a dirty 
little schooner which had slaves on 
board. An officer was sent to take 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


charge of her, and, after a few min* 
utes, he sent back his boat to ask 
that some one might be sent him 
who could speak Portuguese. We 
were all looking over the rail when 
the message came, and we all 
wished we could interpret, when 
the captain asked. Who spoke Por- 
tuguese^ But none of the officers 
did; and just as the captain was 
sending forward to ask if any of 
the people could, Nolan stepped 
out and said he should be glad to 
interpret, if the captain wished, as 
he understood the language. The 
captain thanked him, fitted out an- 
other boat with him, and in this 
boat it was my luck to go. 

69 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


When we got there, it was such 
a scene as you seldom see and never 
want to. Nastiness beyond ac- 
count, and chaos run loose in the 
midst of the nastiness. There were 
not a great many of the negroes; 
but by way of making what there 
were understand that they were 
free, Vaughan had had their hand- 
cuffs and ankle-cuffs knocked off, 
and, for convenience sake, was put- 
ting them upon the rascals of the 
schooner’s crew. The negroes were, 
most of them, out of the hold, and 
swarming all round the dirty 
deck, with a central throng sur- 
rounding Vaughan and addressing 
him in every dialect, and patois of 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


a dialect, from the Zulu click up to 
the Parisian of Beledeljereed. 

As we came on deck, Vaughan 
looked down from a hogshead, on 
which he had mounted in despera- 
tion, and said : 

“For God’s love, is there any- 
body who can make these wretches 
understand something^ The men 
gave them rum, and that did not 
quiet them. I knocked that big fel- 
low down twice, and that did not 
soothe him. And then I talked 
Choctaw to all of them together; 
and I’ll be hanged if they under- 
stood that as well as they under- 
stood the English.” 

Nolan said he could speak Por- 
n 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


tuguese, and ont or two fine-look- 
ing Kroomen were dragged out, 
who, as it had been found already, 
had worked for the Portuguese on 
the coast at Fernando Po. 

“Tell them they are free,” said 
Vaughan; “and tell them that 
these rascals are to be hanged as 
soon as we can get rope enough.” 

Nolan “put that into Spanish” 
— that is, he explained it in such 
Portuguese as the Kroomen could 
understand, and they in turn to 
such of the negroes as could under- 
stand them. Then there was such 
a yell of delight, clinching of fists, 
leaping and dancing, kissing of 
Nolan’s feet, and a general rush 

72 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


made to the hogshead by way of 
spontaneous worship of Vaughan^ 
as the deus ex machina of the oc- 
casion. 

‘Tell them,’’ said Vaughan, 
well pleased, “that I will take 
them all to Cape Palmas.” 

This did not answer so well. 
Cape Palmas was practically as far 
from the homes of most of them as 
New Orleans or Rio Janeiro was; 
that is, they would be eternally 
separated from home there. And 
their interpreters, as we could un- 
derstand, instantly said, non 
Palmas” and began to propose 
infinite other expedients in most 
voluble language. Vaughan was 

73 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


rather disappointed at this result 
of his liberality, and asked Nolan 
eagerly what they said. The drops 
stood on poor Nolan’s white fore- 
head, as he hushed the men down, 
and said : — 

“He says, ‘Not Palmas.’ He 
says, ‘Take us home, take us to our 
own country, take us to our own 
house, take us to our own pickanin- 
nies and our own women.’ He says 
he has an old father and mother 
who will die if they do not see him. 
And this one says he left his people 
all sick, and paddled down to Fer- 
nando to beg the white doctor to 
come and help them, and that these 
devils caught him in the bay just 

74 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


in sight of home, and that he has 
never seen anybody from home 
since then. And this one says,” 
choked out Nolan, '‘that he has not 
heard a word from his home in six 
months, while he has been locked 
up in an infernal barracoon.” 

Vaughan always said he grew 
gray himself while Nolan strug- 
gled through this interpretation. 
I, who did not understand any- 
thing of the passion involved in it, 
saw that the very elements were 
melting with fervent heat, and 
that something was to pay some- 
where. Even the negroes them- 
selves stopped howling, as they 

saw Nolan’s agony, and Vaughan’s 
76 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


almost equal agony of sympathy. 
As quick as he could get words, he 
said: 

"Tell them yes, yes, yes; tell 
them they shall go to the Moun- 
tains of the Moon, if they will. If 
I sail the schooner through the 
Great White Desert, they shall go 
home!” 

And after some fashion Nolan 
said so. 

And then they all fell to kissing 
him again, and wanted to rub his 
nose with theirs. 

But he could not stand it long; 
and, getting Vaughan to say he 
might go back, he beckoned me 
down into our boat. As we lay 

76 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


back in the sternsheets and the 
men gave way, he said to me: 
“Youngster, let that show you 
what it is to be without a family, 
without a home, and without a 
country. And if you are ever 
tempted to say a word or to do a 
thing that shall put a bar between 
you and your family, your home, 
and your country, pray God in his 
mercy to take you that instant 
home to his own heaven. Stick by 
your family, boy; forget you have 
a self, while you do everything for 
them. Think of your home, boy; 
write and send, and talk about it. 
Let it be nearer and nearer to your 
thought, the farther you have to 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


travel from it; and rush back to it 
when you are free, as that poor 
black slave is doing now. And for 
your country, boy,” and the words 
rattled in his throat, “and for that 
flag,” and he pointed to the ship, 
“never dream a dream but of serv- 
ing her as she bids you, though the 
service carry you through a thou- 
sand hells. No matter what hap- 
pens to you, no matter who flatters 
you or who abuses you, never look 
at another flag, never let a night 
pass but you pray God to bless that 
flag. Remember, boy, that behind 
all these men you have to do with, 
behind officers, and government, 
and people even, there is the Coun- 

78 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


try Herself, your Country, and 
that you belong to Her as you be- 
long to your own mother. Stand 
by Her, boy, as you would stand 
by your mother, if those devils 
there had got hold of her to-day!” 

I was frightened to death by his 
'■^im, hard passion; but I blun- 
dered out, that I would, by all that 
was holy, and that I had never 
thought of doing anything else. 
He hardly seemed to hear me ; but 
he did, almost in a whisper, say: 
“Oh, if anybody had said so to me 
when I was of your age !” 

I think it was this half-confi- 
dence of his, which I never abused, 
for I never told this story till now, 

79 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


which afterward made us great 
friends. He was very kind to me. 
Often he sat up, or even got up, at 
night, to walk the deck with me, 
when it was my watch. He ex- 
plained to me a great deal of my 
mathematics, and I owe to him my 
taste for mathematics. He lent me 
books, and helped me about my 
reading. He never alluded so di- 
rectly to his story again; but from 
one and another officer I have 
learned, in thirty years, what I am 
telling. When we parted from him 
in St. Thomas harbor, at the end of 
our cruise, I was more sorry than I 
can tell. I was very glad to meet 

him again in 1830; and later in 
80 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


life, when I thought I had some in- 
fluence in Washington, I moved 
heaven and earth to have him dis- 
charged. But it was like getting a 
ghost out of prison. They pre- 
tended there was no such man, and 
never was such a man. They will 
say so at the Department now! 
Perhaps they do not know. It will 
not be the first thing in the service 
of which the Department appears 
to know nothing ! 

There is a story that Nolan met 
Burr once on one of our vessels, 
when a party of Americans came 
on board in the Mediterranean. 
But this I believe to be a lie; or, 

rather, it is a myth, ben trovato^ 
81 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


involving a tremendous blowing- 
up with which he sunk Burr, — ask- 
ing him how he liked to be ‘‘with- 
out a country/’ But it is clear from 
Burr’s life that nothing of the sort 
could have happened; and I men- 
tion this only as an illustration of 
the stories which get a-going where 
there is the least mystery at bot- 
tom. 

So poor Philip Nolan had his 
wish fulfilled. I know but one fate 
more dreadful; it is the fate re- 
served for those men who shall 
have one day to exile themselves 
from their country because they 
have attempted her ruin, and shall 
have at the same time to sec the 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


prosperity and honor to which she 
rises when she has rid herself of 
them and their iniquities. The wish 
of poor Nolan, as we all learned 
to call him, not because his punish- 
ment was too great, but because his 
repentance was so clear, was pre- 
cisely the wish of every Bragg and 
Beauregard who broke a soldier’s 
oath two years ago, and of every 
Maury and Barron who broke a 
sailor’s. I do not know how often 
they have repented. I do know 
that they have done all that in 
them lay that they might have no 
country, — that all the honors, as- 
sociations, memories, and hopes 
which belong to “country” might 

83 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


be broken up into little shreds and 
distributed to the winds. I know, 
too, that their punishment, as they 
vegetate through what is left of 
life to them in wretched Boulognes 
and Leicester Squares, where they 
are destined to upraid each other 
till they die, will have all the 
agony of Nolan’s with the added 
pang that every one who sees them 
will see them to despise and to exe- 
crate them. They will have their 
wish, like him. 

For him, poor fellow, he repented 
of his folly, and then, like a man, 
submitted to the fate he had asked 
for. He never intentionally added 
to the difficulty or delicacy of the 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


charge of those who had him in 
hold. Accidents would happen; 
but they never happened from his 
fault. Lieutenant Truxton told 
me that, when Texas was annexed, 
there was a careful discussion 
among the officers, whether they 
should get hold, of Nolan’s hand- 
some set of ma^v, and cut Texas 
out of it, — from the map of the 
world and the map of Mexico. The 
United States had been cut out 
when the atlas was bought for him. 
But it was voted, rightly enough, 
that to do this would be virtually 
to reveal to him what had hap- 
pened, or, as Harry Cole said, to 
make him think Old Burr had sue- 

85 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


ceeded. So it was from no fault of 
Nolan’s that a great botch hap- 
pened at my own table, when, for 
a short time, I was in command of 
the George Washington corvette, 
on the South American station. We 
were lying in the La Plata, and 
some of the officers, who had been 
on shore, and had just joined 
again, were entertaining us with 
accounts of their misadventures in 
riding the half-wild horses of Bue- 
nos Ayres. Nolan was at table, and 
was in an unusually bright and 
talkative mood. Some story of a 
tumble reminded him of an adven- 
ture of his own, when he was catch- 
ing wild horses in Texas with his 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


adventurous cousin at a time when 
he must have been quite a boy. He 
told the story with a good deal of 
spirit, — so much so, that the si- 
lence which often follows a good 
story hung over the table for an in- 
stant, to be broken by Nolan him- 
self, For he asked perfectly un- 
consciously : — 

“Pray, what has become of 
Texas? After the Mexicans got 
their independence, I thought that 
province of Texas would come for- 
ward very fast. It is really one of 
the finest regions on earth; it is the 
Italy of this continent. But I have 
not seen or heard a word of Texas 
for near twenty years.” 

87 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


There were two Texan officers 
at the table. The reason he had 
never heard of Texas was that 
Texas and her affairs had been 
painfully cut out of his news- 
papers since Austin began his set- 
tlements; so that, while he read of 
Honduras and Tamaulipas, and, 
till quite lately, of California, — 
this virgin province, in which his 
brother had travelled so far, and, I 
believe, had died, had ceased to be 
to him. Waters and Williams, the 
two Texas men, looked grimly at 
each other, and tried not to laugh. 
Edward Morris had his attention 
attracted by the third link in the 
chain of the captain’s chandelien 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


Watrous was seized with a convuh 
sion of sneezing. Nolan himself 
saw that something was to pay, he 
did not know what. And I, as mas- 
ter of the feast, had to say, — 

“Texas is out of the map, Mr. 
Nolan. Have you seen Captain 
Back’s curious account of Sir Tho- 
mas Roe’s Welcome?” 

After that cruise I never saw 
Nolan again. I wrote to him at 
least twice a year, for in that voy- 
age we became even confidentially 
intimate; but he never wrote to me. 
The other men tell me that in those 
fifteen years he aged very fast, as 
well he might, indeed, but that he 
was still the same gentle, uncom* 

89 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


plaining, silent sufferer that he 
ever was, bearing as best he could 
his self-appointed punishment, — 
rather less social, perhaps, with 
new men whom he did not know, 
but more anxious, apparently, than 
ever to serve and befriend and 
teach the boys, some of whom fair- 
ly seemed to worship him. And 
now it seems the dear old fellow is 
dead. He has found a home at last, 
and a country. 

Since writing this, and while con- 
sidering whether or no I would 
print it, as a warning to the young 
Nolans and Vallandighams and 
Tatnalls of to-day of what it is to 

90 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


throw away a country, I have re- 
ceived from Danforth, who is on 
board the Levant, a letter which 
gives an account of Nolan’s last 
hours. It removes all my doubts 
about telling this story. 

To understand the first words 
of the letter, the non-professional 
reader should remember that after 
1817, the position of every officer 
who had Nolan in charge was one 
of the greatest delicacy. The gov- 
ernment had failed to renew the 
order of 1807 regarding him. What 
was a man to do? Should he let 
him go? What, then, if he were 
called to account by the Depart- 
ment for violating the order of 

91 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


1807? Should he keep him? What, 
then, if Nolan should be liberated 
some day, and should bring an ac- 
tion for false imprisonment or kid- 
napping against every man who 
had had him in charge? I urged 
and pressed this upon Southard, 
and I have reason to think that 
other officers did the same thing. 
But the Secretary always said, as 
they so often do at Washington, 
that there were no special orders to 
give, and that we must act on our 
own judgment. That means, ‘If 
you succeed, you will be sustained ; 
if you fail, you will be dis- 
avowed.” Well, as Danforth says, 
all that is over now, though I do 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


not know but I expose myself to a 
criminal prosecution on the evi- 
dence of the very revelation I am 
making. 

Here is the letter: — 

“Levant, 2* 2' S. @ 131* W. 

“Dear Fred: — I try to find 
heart and life to tell you that it is 
all over with dear old Nolan. I 
have been with him on this voyage 
more than I ever was, and I can 
understand wholly now the way in 
which you used to speak of the dear 
old fellow. I could see that he was 
not strong, but I had no idea the 
end was so near. The doctor has 

been watching him very carefully, 
93 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


and yesterday morning came to me 
and told me that Nolan was not so 
well, and had not left his state- 
room, — a thing I never remember 
before. He had let the doctor come 
and see him as he lay there, — the 
first time the doctor had been in 
the state-room, — and he said he 
should like to see me. O dear! do 
you remember the mysteries we 
boys used to invent about his room, 
in the old Intrepid days? Well, I 
went in, and there, to be sure, the 
poor fellow lay in his berth, smil- 
ing pleasantly as he gave me his 
hand, but looking very frail. I 
could not help a glance around, 
which showed me what a little 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


shrine he had made of the box he 
was lying in. The stars and stripes 
were triced up above and around 
a picture of Washington, and he 
had painted a majestic eagle, with 
lightnings blazing from his beak 
and his foot just clasping the 
whole globe, which his wings over* 
shadowed. The dear old boy saw 
my glance, and said, with a sad 
smile, ‘Here, you see, I have a 
country!’ And then he pointed to 
the foot of his bed, where I had not 
seen before a great map of the 
United States, as he had drawn it 
from memory, and which he had 
there to look upon as he lay. 
Quaint, queer old names were on 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


it, in large letters: ‘Indiana Terri- 
tory,’ ‘Mississippi Territory,’ and 
‘Louisiana Territory,’ as I suppose 
our fathers learned such things; 
but the old fellow had patched in 
Texas, too; he had carried his 
western boundary all the way to 
the Pacific, but on that shore he 
had defined nothing. 

“ ‘O Danforth,’ he said, ‘I know 
I am dying. I cannot get home. 
Surely you will tell me something 
now*? — Stop! stop! Do not speak 
till I say what I am sure you know, 
that there is not in this ship, that 
there is not in America, — God 
bless her ! — a more loyal man than 
I. There cannot be a man who 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


loves the old flag as I do, or prays 
for it as I do, or hopes for it as I 
do. There are thirty-four stars in 
it now, Danforth. I thank God for 
that, though I do not know what 
their names are. There has never 
been one taken away. I thank God 
for that. I know by that that there 
has never been any successful 
Burr. O Danforth, Danforth, he 
sighed out, ‘how like a wretched 
night’s dream a boy’s idea of per- 
sonal fame or of separate sover- 
eignty seems, when one looks back 
on it after such a life as mine ! But 
tell me, — tell me something, — tell 
me everything, Danforth, before I 
die!’ 


97 


THE .MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


‘^Ingham, I swear to you that I 
felt like a monster that I had not 
told him everything before. Dan- 
ger or no danger, delicacy or no 
delicacy, who was I, that I should 
have been acting the tyrant all this 
time over this dear, sainted old 
man, who had years ago expiated, 
in his whole manhood’s life, the 
madness of a boy’s treason? ‘Mr. 
Nolan,’ said I, 1 will tell you 
everything you ask about. Only, 
where shall I begin?’ 

“O the blessed smile that crept 
over his white face ! and he pressed 
my hand and said, ‘God bless you !’ 
‘Tell me their names,’ he said, and 
he pointed to the stars on the flag. 

98 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


‘The last I know is Ohio. My 
father lived in Kentucky. But I 
have guessed Michigan and In- 
diana and Mississippi, — that was 
where Fort Adams is, — they make 
twenty. But where are your other 
fourteen? You have not cut up 
any of the old ones, I hope?’ 

“Well, that was not a bad text, 
and I told him the names in as good 
order as I could, and he bade me 
take down his beautiful map and 
draw them in as I best could with 
my pencil. He was wild with de- 
light about Texas, told me how his 
cousin died there; he had marked 
a gold cross near where he sup- 
posed his grave was; and he had 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


guessed at Texas. Then he was de- 
lighted as he saw California and 
Oregon ; — that, he said, he had sus- 
pected partly, because he had 
never been permitted to land on 
that shore, though the ships were 
there so much. 'And the men,’ said 
he, laughing, 'brought off a good 
deal besides furs.’ Then he went 
back — heavens, how far! — to ask 
about the Chesapeake, and what 
was done to Barron for surrender- 
ing her to the Leopard, and 
whether Burr ever tried again, — 
and he ground his teeth with the 
only passion he showed. But in a 
moment that was over, and he said, 
‘God forgive me, for I am sure I 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


forgive him.’ Then he asked about 
the old war, — told me the true 
story of his serving the gun the day 
we took the Java, — asked about 
dear old David Porter, as he called 
him. Then he settled down more 
quietly, and very happily, to hear 
me tell in an hour the history of 
fifty years. 

“How I wished it had been 
somebody who knew something! 
But I did as well as I could. I told 
him of the English war. I told him 
about Fulton and the steamboat 
beginning. I told him about old 
Scott, and Jackson; told him all I 
could think of about the Missis- 
sippi, and New Orleans, and 
101 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


Texas, and his own old Kentucky. 
And do you think, he asked who 
was in command of the ‘Legion of 
the West.’ I told him it was a very 
gallant officer named Grant, and 
that, by our last news, he was about 
to establish his headquarters at 
Vicksburg. Then, ‘Where was 
Vicksburg?’ I worked that out on 
the map; it was about a hundred 
miles, more or less, above his old 
Fort Adams; and I thought Fort 
Adams must be a ruin now. ‘It 
must be at old Vick’s plantation, at 
Walnut Hills,’ said he: ‘well, that 
is a change!’ 

“I tell you, Ingham, it was a 

hard thing to condense the history 
102 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


of half a century into that talk 
with a sick man. And Ido not now 
know what I told him, — of emigra- 
tion, and the means of it, — of 
steamboats, and railroads, and 
telegraphs, — of inventions, and 
books, and literature, — of the col- 
leges, and West Point, and the 
Naval School, — but with the 
queerest interruptions that ever 
you heard. You see it was Robin- 
son Crusoe asking all the accumu- 
lated questions of fifty-six years ! 

“I remember he asked, all of a 
sudden, who was President now; 
and when I told him, he asked if 
Old Abe was General Benjamin 
Lincoln’s son. He said he met old 

103 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


General Lincoln, when he was 
quite a boy himself, at some Indian 
treaty. I said no, that Old Abe 
was a Kentuckian like himself, but 
I could not tell him of what fam- 
ily; he had worked up from the 
ranks. ‘Good for him!’ cried 
Nolan; 1 am glad of that. As I 
have brooded and wondered, I 
have thought our danger was in 
keeping up those regular suces- 
sions in the first families.’ Then I 
got talking about my visit to 
Washington. I told him of meet- 
ing the Oregon Congressman, 
Harding; I told him about the 
Smithsonian, and the Exploring 
Expedition; I told him about the 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


Capitol, and the statues for the 
pediment, and Crawford’s Liberty, 
and Greenough’s Washington; 
Ingham, I told him everything I 
could think of that would show the 
grandeur of his country and its 
prosperity; but I could not make 
up my mouth to tell him a word 
about this infernal Rebellion! 

“And he drank it in, and enjoyed 
it as I cannot tell you. He grew 
more and more silent, yet I never 
thought he was tired or faint. I 
gave him a glass of water, but he 
just wet his lips, and told me not to 
go away. Then he asked me to 
bring the Presbyterian ‘Book of 
Public Prayer,’ which lay there, 

105 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


and said, with a smile, that it 
would open at the right place, — 
and so it did. There was his double 
red mark down the page; and I 
knelt down and read, and he re- 
peated with me. Tor ourselves and 
our county, O gracious God, we 
thank Thee, that, notwithstanding 
our manifold transgressions of Thy 
holy laws. Thou hast continued to 
us Thy marvellous kindness,’ — 
and so to the end of that thanks- 
giving. Then he turned to the end 
of the same book, and I read the 
words more familiar to me : ‘Most 
heartily we beseech Thee with Thy 
favor to hehold and bless Thy ser- 
vant, the President of the United 
106 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


States, and all others in authority,’ 
‘ — and the rest of the Episcopal col- 
lect. ‘Danforth,’ said he, ‘I have 
repeated those prayers night and 
morning, it is now fifty-five years.’ 
And then he said he would go to 
sleep. He bent me down over him 
and kissed me; and he said, ‘Look 
in my Bible, Danforth, when I am 
gone.’ And I went away. 

“But I had no thought it was 
the end. I thought he was tired and 
would sleep. I knew he was happy 
and I wanted him to be alone. 

“But in an hour, when the doctor 
went in gently, he found Nolan 
had breathed his life away with a 
smile. He had something pressed 

107 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


close to his lips. It was his father’s 
badge of the Order of the Cincin- 
nati. 

“We looked in his Bible, and 
there A^as a slip of paper at the 
place where he had marked the 
text; — < 

“ ‘They desire a country, even 
a heavenly: wherefore God is not 
ashamed to be called their God : for 
he hath prepared for them a city.’ 

“On this slip of paper he had 
written : — 

“ ‘Bury me in the sea ; it has been 
my home, and I love it. But will 
not some one set up a stone for my 
memory at Fort Adams or at Or- 
leans, that my disgrace may not be 
1.08 


THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 


more than I ought to bear? Say on 
it: — 

IN MEMORY OF 

PHILIP NOLAN, 

Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. 

He loved his country as no other man has 
loved her, but no man deserved 
less at her hands. 



NOTES 


The Notes which follow have been added to Dr. 
Hale’s charming story for the purpose of acquaint- 
ing the reader somewhat more fully with the refer- 
ences to the people, places and events with which 
the pages of this book abound. In his wide survey 
of American life and history we recognize Dr. Hale’s 
wonderful grasp of the story of our country ; his deep 
and secure knowledge of men and events, not in 
America alone, but the world over. His imagery is 
always vivid, his vocabulary wide, his references 
many and varied. 

We urge therefore, constant reference to these 
Notes, so that there may be brought out for the 
reader the brilliant colors of the picture. The au- 
thor paints a most wonderful canvas, the tints of 
which become evident to the beholder, as he makes 
his way into a full understanding of the author’s 
mind and method. 


Ill 


NOTES 

TO 

THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY. 

Page 13. I SUPPOSE. The author uses this form of 
beginning to intimate the uncertainty of the 
occurrence. 

AUGUST 13th. Note that no year is 
given. 

CORVETTE. A war vessel that usually 
carries a single tier of guns. 
MISSION-HOUSE, The Jesuits who ex- 
plored the part of the country referred to 
erected a mission house at Mackinaw, on 
the Island of Mackinac, Lake Huron. 

15. MADISON’S ADMINISTRATION. James 
Madison was fourth President of the U. S. ; 
from 1809-17. 

ESPRIT DE CORPS. French. The pre- 
vailing spirit of the organization. 

16. NAVAL ARCHIVES. Naval records, 
that is, records of naval activity. The term 
also refers to the place where such records 
are filed. 

ROSS. British Commander. His troops 
sacked the city of Washington in 1814. 

112 


NOTES 


TUCKERS & WATSONS. Note the bril- 
liant company which the author creates as 
a background for the story. 

Page 17. “NON MI RECORDO.” Italian. “I do 
not remember.” 

18. AARON BURR. Vice-President in Jeffer- 
son’s first term, 1801-1804. In a duel be- 
tween Burr and Alexander Hamilton, 
Hamilton lost his life. 

FORT MASSAC. This Fort was situate 
north of New Orleans. 

19. MONONGAHELA & BOURBON. Kinds 
of American whiskey. 

HAZARD, HIGH-LOW-JACK, EUCHRE, 
AND POKER. Names of card games. 

20. CANEBRAKE. A cane thicket. 
COTTONWOOD TREE. An American 
tree, Populus. Its seeds are covered with 
cotton-like hairs. 

21. JEFFERSON AND THE HOUSE OF 
VIRGINIA. Thomas Jefferson was a Vir- 
ginian and the men he selected for coun- 
sellors and advisors are here referred to 
as the House. 

PUGET’S SOUND. On the Pacific Coast 
off the State of Washington. 

FORT ADAMS. Situate on the Missis- 
sippi and in the Southwestern part of the 
State of Mississippi. 

23. COLONEL MORGAN. Like all of the 

113 


NOTES 


characters in the story with the exception 
of Aaron Burr, that of old Colonel Mor- 
gan is fictitious. 

Page 24. SPANISH PLOT — ORLEANS PLOT. 

Previous to 1800 Texas and a great part 
of what is now the United States West of 
the Mississippi belonged to Spain. These 
phrases refer to a plot designed to take 
away forcibly from Spain some of her ter- 
ritory in North America. 

VERA CRUZ. A city on the East Coast 
of Mexico. The words mean the True 
Cross. 

26. BENEDICT ARNOLD. Traitor to his 
country. He was born in 1741 and died in 
1801. 

GOD SAVE KING GEORGE. George 
IV was the English Sovereign at this time. 

28. WITHOUT DAY. Meaning without defi- 
nite time for reconvening, usually ex- 
pressed by the Latin sine die. 

THAT IS IF I MAY BELIEVE. Note 
how these words are thrown in opposition 
to the preceding repeated word “certain.” 

29. CROWNINSHIELD. From 1814 to 1818 
the Secretary of the Navy was Benjamin 
W. Crowninshield. 

30. TINGE Y. Thomas Tingey of the British 
Navy. He came to America and entered 

114 


NOTES 


the United States Navy, taking charge of 
the Navy Yard in 1804. 

ETIQUETTE. The proper order of con- 
duct 

Page 32. QUARTERS. Living space aboard ship. 

RATIONS. A term used to include all 
provisions (food) allowed to naval men 
in any capacity. 

36. I REMEMBER. The reader should re- 
member the story is told by a narrator, 
Frederic Ingham, who is represented as 
an officer in the United States Navy. 
ALEXANDRIA. A seaport in Egypt 

37. CAIRO. The capital city of Egypt on the 
Nile. 

DONS. A word from the Spanish in 
which language it denotes gentlemen. 
Hence here a term of respect 

38. PARAGUAY. A State of South America. 
HESIOD. The Greek poet He lived 
about 735 B. C. 

CANNING. English statesman, George 
Canning, was Prime Minister in 1827. 
PACKET. A vessel employed to carry 
mails, goods and other matter for ship- 
ment 

40. LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. Poem 
by Sir Walter Scott 

TEMPEST. A play by Shakespeare. 

41. BORDER CHIVALRY. This refers to the 

115 


NOTES 


engagements between Border Knights 
fought on the Borders of England and 
Scotland. 

Page 44. BRAGGADOCIO. The word comes from 
Spenser’s Faerie Queene — a boastful, swag- 
gering person. 

46. FLECHIER’S SERMONS. Esprit Flechier 
was a French orator of distinction. He 
subsequently was elected to the position of 
Bishop of Nimes. He lived 1632-1710. 
WINDWARD ISLANDS. Those Islands 
of the West Indies extending south and 
east from Porto Rico to Trinidad. 
RENDEZVOUS. A designated place of 
meeting. 

50. LADY HAMILTON. A noted member of 
the social life of her times. Her husband, 
Sir William Hamilton, was British Envoy 
at Naples. 

CONTRETEMPS. (French.) An awk- 
ward moment or situation. 
CONTRA-DANCES. The partners stand 
in two lines facing each other and dance 
down the center and back. 

51. VIRGINIA REEL. An old English con- 
tra-dance. 

MONEY MUSK. A contra-dance and the 
name of a familiar tune to which the 
dance is carried on. 

THE OLD THIRTEEN. As this term re- 
116 


NOTES 


ferrcd to the original Thirteen States of 
the Union, it could not be used in Nolan’s 
presence. 

Page 53. VESUVIUS. A volcano in the South of 
Italy. 

55. IRON MASK. This refers to a mystery 
of the period of Louis XIV of France. 
JUNIUS. A series of letters were pub- 
lished in England about the year 1768 
which were antagonistic to the Ministry 
and which discussed particularly political 
questions of the day. The writer took as 
a pen name, Junius. 

57. COCK-PIT. Of a war vessel, the place 
devoted to the wounded. 

59. QUARTER DECK. That part of the up- 
per deck abaft the main mast, including 
the poop deck when there is one. — Web- 
ster. 

61. NUKAHIWA ISLANDS. Islands in the 
Southern Pacific now known as the Mar- 
quesas. 

62. MADISON AND THE VIRGINIANS. 
President Madison and his political sup- 
porters did not believe that territorial ex- 
pansion was a wise national policy. 

65. LEPIDOPTERA. The family of moths 
and butterflies. 

STEPTOPOTERA. This term does not 
117 


NOTES 


occur In the dictionary. See Strepsitera 
(beetles). 

Page 66. LINNi^^US. Carolus Linnaeus (1707- 
1778). Swedish Naturalist and Botanist. 
67. MIDDLE PASSAGE. This refers to the 
region of the Atlantic stretching from the 
West Coast of Africa to the shores of 
America. 

70. PATOIS. The form of speech of the il- 
literate. 

71. ZULU. A tribe of the Kaffir Race in 
Africa. 

BELEDELJEREED. In Northern Africa. 
CHOCTAW. The speech of an American 
Indian tribe that lived in the South. 

72. KROOMEN. A name applied to the 
Negro race of the Liberian Coast of 
Africa. 

FERNANDO PO. An island off the Afri- 
can Coast (West). 

73. DEUS EX MACHINA. Literally, the god 
from the machine, the cause or moving 
motive. 

CAPE PALMAS. On the Liberian Coast 
of West Africa. 

76. MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON. In Cen- 
tral Africa, and once supposed to be the 
territory of the source of the Nile. 

GREAT WHITE DESERT. The Desert 
of Sahara in Northern Africa. 

118 


NOTES 


Fage 8o. ST. THOMAS. The Island of St. Thomas 
of what was formerly the Danish West 
Indies. The Islands have been taken over 
by the U. S. 

8i. MEDITERRANEAN. Medius, middle— 
Terra^ land. The sea between Southern 
Europe and Northern Africa. 

BEN TROVATO. (Italian.) Well imag- 
ined, cleverly constructed or conceived. 

83. BRAGG. General Braxton Bragg (1815- 
1876). 

BEAUREGARD. General P. G. T. Beau- 
regard (1818-1893). Both Bragg and 
Beauregard entered the Confederacy. 
MAURY AND BARRON. Officers of the 
U. S. Navy who joined the Confederate 
Navy. 

84. BOULOGNES AND LEICESTER 
SQUARES. Boulogne is a popular sea- 
side resort on the Coast of France. Leices- 
ter Square is a popular amusement center 
in London. 

85. TEXAS. Texas was annexed to the Union 
in 1845. 

86. LA PLATA. A river of South America 
entering the Atlantic between Argentina 
and Uruguay. La Plata means the river 
of silver. 

BUENOS AYRES. A city on the La Plata, 
119 


NOTES 


also the name of a Province of which the 
city is the capital. 

Fage S8. AUSTIN. Moses Austin established an 
American colony in Texas with the permis- 
sion of the Mexican Government. 
HONDURAS. A State of Central Amer- 
ica. 

TAMAULIPAS. A State of Mexico. 

90. NOLANS AND VALLANDIGHAMS 
AND TATNALLS. Nolan is of course a 
fictitious name. Captain Vallandigham 
was a vicious enemy of Abraham Lincoln’s. 
Josiah Tatnall entered the Confederate 
Army. The author’s intention is to group 
these names as a warning to young Amer- 
icans. 

91. THE LEVANT. See announcement on 
page 13. 

98. INGHAM. Frederic Ingham is the nar- 
rator of the story. See note, page 36, “I 
REMEMBER.” 

loi. JAVA. A British Frigate that was cap- 
tured by the Constitution. 

FULTON. Robert Fulton invented the 
steamboat, 1765-1815. 

SCOTT. Winfield Scott, 1786-1866. In 
1841 he was made Commander in Chief 
of the American Army. 

JACKSON. Andrew Jackson, 1765-1845; 
120 


NOTES 


seventh President of the United States from 
1829-1837. 

Paffe 102. GRANT. Ulysses S. Grant, eighteenth 
President of the United States, serving 
from 1869 to 1877. 

103. WEST POINT AND NAVAL SCHOOL. 
The former is the military academy on 
the Hudson; the latter the naval academy 
at Annapolis, Md. 

103. ROBINSON CRUSOE. The famous char- 
acter in Defoe’s novel of the same name. 

104. OLD ABE. Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth 
President of the United States from i86i 
to 1865. 

SMITHSONIAN. An Institution in Wash- 
ington founded by James Smithson, an Eng- 
lish scientist. 

105. CRAWFORD’S LIBERTY AND GREEN- 
OUGH’S WASHINGTON. Statuary de- 
signed and executed for the Capitol at 
Washington. 

107. COLLECT. A short prayer for a particu- 
lar day, occasion or condition that formed 
a part of the liturgy. 

108. ORDER OF THE CINCINNATI. An as- 
sociation founded by officers in the Conti- 
nental Army and named from the Ro- 
man Dictator, Lucius Quintius Cincinna- 
tus. 


121 


NOTES 


QUESTIONS 

These Questions are intended to stimulate inten- 
sive study. The teacher may readily increase them 
by basing additional questions upon the subject mat- 
ter of the Notes. The trend of the story brings be- 
fore the reader an astonishing amount of detail in 
history, biography and geography. It has been the 
aim of the editor to emphasize the importance of 
these aspects of the story in reference to the central 
figure of the canvas. 

If it be necessary to divide the entire text into a 
few distinctive lessons, it is suggested, so far as 
the demands of the recitation period permit, that 
the natural subdivisions of the narrative be ob- 
served. For example 

I Introduction, from page 13, to last line 
but one of page 17. 

II The story begins with page 17, last 
line; the Trial Scene ends on page 28, 
sixth line. 

III The arrangement by which Nolan’s sen- 
tence was carried out, page 28, line 7, 
to page 33. 

IV Through the Introductory Paragraph 
on page 34, the author commits Nolan 
to his life at sea. 

Thus the whole story may be subdivided and one 
or more subdivisions or portions thereof assigned 
for a single recitation period. 

122 


NOTES 


QUESTIONS 

TO 

THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 

1. Who is the author of this story? 

2. Why is it called The Man Without a Country ? 

3. What did Philip Nolan do to merit the pun- 
ishment inflicted upon him? 

4. When was the story written? 

5. In what period of our national history was 
the story first published? 

6. Who was President of the United States in 
1863 ? 

7. Where is Lat. 2* 11' S., Long. 131® W. ? 

8. In what year was Philip Nolan condemned 
to be The Man Without a Country? 

9. Who exerted an evil influence upon Philip 
Nolan? 

10. What rank did Philip Nolan hold at the time 
of his trial? 

11. For how many years was he a Man Without 
a Country? 

12. What is meant by the expression: “The 
Court is adjourned without day”? 

13. Who was President of the United States at 
the time of Philip Nolan’s trial and condemnation? 

14. Who tells the story? 

15. Why was the name Plain-Buttons given to 
Nolan aboard ship? 


123 


NOTES 


16. Describe his life aboard ship, particularly 
his intercourse with the officers and men. 

17. Who was the author of the Lay of the Last 
Minstrel? Of The Tempest? 

18. What countries are referred to in the ex- 
pression Border chivalry? 

19. What other language than English did Philip 
Nolan speak? 

20. How do we know that he loved his country 
during all the years of his wanderings? 

21. Give all the reasons you can think of for 
Philip Nolan’s burial at sea. 

22. Why should he not have been buried ashore? 

23. Tell in your own words the purpose of the 
story. 

24. How many stars had the flag in 1807? In 
1863? 

25. What character in the story is not fictitious? 

26. Why does the author speak of Benedict 
Arnold in the same sentence with George Washing- 
ton? 


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